Devy Dojo - 8 NFL Draft Prospects That NEED to Prove It In 2026

0:00Brian now shine later futures getting made welcome to the Debbie dojo and legends get the display. We're back. When you hear that music, you already know that it's time to enter the Dojo. Look, once again, we got another banger here in the Dojo tonight. Chris, the Shifu has returned and we are here to bring you eight prospects, eight NFL draft prospects that need to prove it on the field this year. These guys that their devi value might be in jeopardy of just plummeting and of course those guys with the proximity to the real NFL draft. How is this season going to affect that draft stock? And of course that's something that we're always monitoring. That's something that we're always tracking here at the Dojo. So Chris, my friend, the Shifu, it's good to have your back, man. How have you been? It's been a, it's been a, not too long, but you know, man, I missed you. I missed you, Chris. That's what it is. Yeah, you've been doing some good shows without me. I had a couple things going on and then obviously we've launched with the planet boys joining the Dojo, which is fantastic. So you guys had that great show with Eric Frohton and prior to that, you had another

1:04guest on when I was at a wedding. So I get it. It's been a little while, but you know what we're back and we are getting ready for football season because week zero is right around the corner and we're gonna start rolling right into it and my wife is already unhappy with how much of it. So she was talking about plans this weekend. She's like, well, we don't have a lot going on Saturday. I'm like, yeah, you don't. It's gonna be good. But yeah, we're, we're getting into the rhythm. We're gonna set some regular schedules so that we're making content for you guys regularly throughout the season, looking forward to it. Obviously, when football's back, we're all happy. I'm a little irritated because I have to drive to a wedding this Saturday. But thankfully, it's week zero. You know, if there's a week that you have to miss some games, that's the one. But man, you know, the pads are cracking, right? Dept charts are being set. This is this is football. Like I can I go outside and I sniff it like this is football, whether it it's almost here, man. So definitely ready. But there are still some questions that we have about some of these guys before they ultimately show us on the field. And that's what tonight's episode is all about. So Chris, let's just go ahead and we'll

2:04we'll just kick this thing off. Who's our first guy that we're gonna talk about tonight? Absolutely. So one of the guys that you picked is CJ Bailey, who is obviously a monster-sized man. Absolutely huge out there on the field. What is he six foot seven? Just a massive guy. And you know, if you've listened to us, that I love those duel threats. And he does have a little bit of that rushing ability. So he can chip in on their ground game as well. He's actually a guy I wrote up back in the middle of October on my weekly back then, weekly risers and fallers. And he was a faller because he started pretty hot last year. He was putting up some nice numbers and by, you know, mid-October, he had a couple ugly games under his belt. And really, it didn't get a ton better. He, you know, he eased up a little bit on the interceptions. It seems like he was kind of doing that in chunks. Couple games he throw multiple and then other games he'd have none. But his overall passing yardage just kept going down. It seemed like as the year went on, which is obviously not great for your, you know, long-term development. So he's a great person to talk about specifically

3:06for this type of show because he's got a lot of question marks coming into this year. Can he rebound? He's got another full off season under his belt. Is he gonna have that opportunity to thrust himself back into being a legitimate NFL draft prospect? Or is he just gonna be stuck in that kind of mediocre, you know, halfway in the ACC type quarterback? I picked him because he's a pretty divisive prospect, I think, in the community. Even just with our Debbie Dojo team, Tom Harvey has him ranked pretty aggressively. I'm not gonna give away the paid, you know, rankings, but he's got him ranked pretty aggressively. And I have him, you know, more so middle of the pack. I see a lot of things that I like. He talked about the size six foot six. I believe it just big tall frame, little lean, but, you know, the functional mobility. He's actually very good at working the deep level of the field. When you look at his numbers specifically on throws 20 plus yards down the field, he actually does pretty good by questions with him. And what I want to see this year is how does he handle pressure? Because like I've talked about Adnazim on the show, every single quarterback is gonna struggle against pressure, but some of them

4:08completely collapse. And unfortunately, CJ Bailey was just one that completely collapsed under pressure. He wasn't able to really move out of the pocket and make any type of magic, you know, so that's my biggest concern with him. Specifically when talking about that pressure, he had a 79 passing grade from PFF and it dropped all the way to the sub 30s underneath pressure. You know, so there's a lot of tools that I like. Chris, like I said, he's going into the third year into this system. I believe he's the only starting quarterback in the FPS. I could be wrong on this, but he's either the only one or one of the few that's that's returning with three years in the same system. And he's talked about, you know, all the fall camp propaganda the coaches talking about. He's a leader now. He's vocal. He knows the offense. Now it's about playing more of that quarterback nuance and not having to think about the plays, but throwing with anticipation. And again, that's one of the things that I really need to see from him. Just that growth as a quarterback. I mean, he was a pretty divisive prospect coming out of high school too. As you remember, Chris, he was Jeremiah Smith's high school quarterback and a lot of like the evaluation with him was

5:11that he was being propped up by that elite receiving talent in high school. But you know, now with a lot of this talent that is left in C state, he's really got a shot to prove it. You know, again, his other former high school teammate, Jojo Trader is now there. Talent has never been a question with that man. So now he's going to get his opportunity to, and I'm really looking forward to seeing how he shows out. But this Chris, of course, going into the draft, what is his first year eligible for the draft, got some big time questions for him. Again, though, very experienced guy, he's a guy that had to come in as a true freshman because of injuries to Grace McCall. Of course, he went down with that career ending injury. And he was suddenly thrust into action as a true freshman built on it in his sophomore season. But really, when you look at the splits versus some of the elite defenses, he really struggled beat up on some poor teams. And then they like Miami, the teams like that. He really, really struggled. His best performance came against the then undefeated Georgia Tech team. And he was gimped up a little bit, but he made some impressive throws. So again, it's a lot of like inconsistency.

6:13See, it shows you a lot of good, followed by some really, really bad. So going forward to this season, Chris, the question is, has he put it all together and can he take that next step? Yeah, without a doubt. And obviously with the quarterback position, you can have all the talent in the world, whether that be arm talent or rushing talent or the whole physical tools package, but you need to be able to read the field. That's the most important thing. And when you're having multiple games with multiple interceptions, that's ugly. But he is still fairly young. Like you said, this will be his third year in the same system. He started as a true freshman. So he's got a little bit more experience under his belt. Let's see if he can continue to develop another guy who had some issues with interceptions last year was the guy that I picked, Mr. Josh Hoover. And he's a name who I think everybody is well aware of at this point, you know, obviously coming from TCU. And now he's at Indiana. When I was scouting Eric MacAuster last year, it was very clear to me that Hoover has insane talent. Like he can put that ball in a bucket. He can hit people on

7:13the sidelines. He can drop a right where it needs to be. And other times he makes extremely poor decisions, which is how he ended up being third in college last year in interceptions. Naturally, moving in Indiana is great for him. Obviously, we just saw them go undefeated. They turned for Nanda Mendoza, who's a guy that neither of us were super high on coming into last season into the number one overall draft pick, national champion, and high has been winter. So Kurt Signetti knows what he's doing there. And Hoover was the guy that they have hand picked to replace that level of talent. And so far, all of the reports out of Indiana are that he's been lighting it up. He actually had a couple of those beautiful passes floating around on the Twitter sphere in in practice, throwing the Charlie Becker on the sidelines. And absolutely beautiful ball. Becker himself was just on Pat McAfee today, I believe, talking about how great Hoover is, how he's in the facility all the time. You know, he seems to be really embracing the the pressure that comes with being the next quarterback of the national champion. So it seems like he's doing all the right things. And I do have faith that Signetti and co can,

8:16you know, grab some of that untapped potential and turn him into the quarterback he needs to be. But you can't be throwing 13 interceptions in a year or you're just simply not going to be that high of a NFL draft talent. People aren't going to want you turn the ball over that often at the NFL level. So it's a big maker break year for him. And there's some people that don't believe in his overall level of talent. Some people that think that maybe he's not the right fit for Indiana. And it is notable that Kurt Signetti has said that they wanted Alberto Mendoza to stay. He said they got all the people that they wanted to stay to stay, except for Alberto who went to Georgia Tech, which is very interesting to me because it's like you were there with your brother being the quarterback and now you get the chance and you split. That's kind of but his loss is Hoover's gain because now Hoover is going to have the best program he's ever played for the best defense and the best running game behind him that he's ever had, which is going to take some of that pressure off of his shoulders. And obviously an extremely brilliant mind as his head coach to try to get some of that untapped potential and grow him into the man that he can be.

9:18And I'm telling you, when you watch some of his highlights, he can certainly be that. So much like we just talked about with Bailey, it all comes down to how can he process things? He needs to make better decisions on the field. He's got those great receiving talents around him like Charlie Becker, like Nick Marsch who transferred from Michigan State to be there. So it's completely rules up for him. Really the future is his to seize if he can seize it. It's it's push coming to shove this year for Joshua. Yeah, for me, it's like you said, eliminating those mistakes and wasn't that long ago. His former head coach, Sunny Dykes was throwing some legit eight at him. And he talked about all those turnovers. And I loved Cretz's responsibilities response, man. And he's like, you know, before Josh, who we got here, he hadn't met his two best friends yet. A good run game at a good defense. And I love that, man, because Cretz's dignity is just one of those dudes that is going to stick up for his guys. But he's a master at his craft. Like Cretz's dignity has reached already a level in my eyes that I'm going to trust him blindly. Like truly, if this is the guy that he's picked to run this offense, then I'm going to be confident that Hoover's a good fit to run what they

10:20want to do. And I think that structure and that type of coaching is going to be able to reel him in just like we saw with Fernando Mendoza, right? And he's got the big arm. He's got the weapons out there. So I don't see how you couldn't really be optimistic about his outlook, but to be optimistic and blind to some of those negative marks in his profile, which is be doing him a disservice. So I agree with him being draft eligible. This is really that season, especially with what Indiana was able to do with Fernando Mendoza. All eyes are on Indiana. And I think all of us are kind of somewhat expecting to see that growth. So if he doesn't answer those questions by the inverse, he could actually fall very, very quickly because we've seen how many times Chris, I mean, there was games last year. I know you and I were both watching TC and we're like, God damn, this dude can freaking rip it, man. Like he makes some incredible throws and then he'll follow that up with some bone headed stuff. And it's kind of just that I don't necessarily want to call him a gunslinger, but he almost has that mentality at times where like, maybe it's just the armor against he believes in it too much.

11:21And he's going to fit it into some windows that he probably shouldn't. And you know, I'm expected to see some pretty fun sideline interactions between Hoover and Kurt Signetti, you know, because I think Fernando was a little bit of a little bit of a church boy, you know, the yes man, like yes, coach boy, yes, you're right. I'll do that. I'm interested to see how Hoover is because I think that we might see some of the situations where Hoover is just going to say, effort. And I trust it and can signety reel him in and get the best out of him. I'm optimistic, but we've got to see it. Yeah, and he's going to have those receivers out there. Like I said, that are a little bit more open. And I love to like, McHallister, I believe he was actually my guy when we made our rookie draft guide. And then of course, that came out and immediately after that, right before the draft, he got hurt. So now he's not even on an NFL team, which is it breaks my heart because I love to have him. He's a good talent. It doesn't look like the NFL is going to be in the future for him. But you know, it's it's the big 10. It's tough defenses. There's two ways to look at it. Like the highest projection is that he does almost exactly what Mendosa did last year and leads them to a great season, the college football playoff and makes himself a first round talent. Or he could just have an ugly

12:25start to the year. And the pressure is on for the defending national champs. What does Josh Hoover have to do in your mind in order to vault himself up to that level to be a first round pick? Simply just avoiding turnovers. Because it not just turnovers, but turnover worthy place, you know, because when he's having more consistent showing that talent, we've seen the highlights. And we've talked about this before. If he doesn't want to, you know, he can do it, right? So we know what he's capable of. But what matters most is what he is doing beyond just those highlight real plays. Is he managing the game well? Is he making sure that they're not ending these drives too early? Ultimately, that's what it's going to come down to. I don't need to see that gunslinger mentality out of him because we know what he can do. I just need to see him be a little bit better at making these decisions and not throwing it where somebody else is going to go up and get it sticking with the big 10 is another quarterback who we have talked about quite a lot. So we don't necessarily need to talk a ton about him, but Bryce Underwood, of course, I'm very high on him. I know that last season had some ups and some downs, you know, obviously

13:29he was a true freshman. It's hard to start as a true freshman, especially in the big 10. But there's a lot, a lot of talent there. So this is the guy that you wanted to highlight. Yeah, because I mean, like we said, the theme of this show is go out there and prove it guys that that need these big years. And Bryce Underwood is a guy that last year was a pain taken ridiculously high, right? He was he was such a vaunted prospect coming out of high school for a lot of recruiting services. He was the best that they had ever marked in their in their grading system. So for him to come out and have the performance that he did, you know, little over 2400 passing yards, 11 touchdowns, nine interceptions, seven, excuse me, 71% adjusted completion percent with 28 drops on the season. He only had 14 big time throws, 15 turnover, where he plays when you turn on the film, Chris, there's a lot of mechanical issues specifically with his footwork and on his dropback. And you would see a lot of his passes sale high. And how many times have I said it, Chris, anytime you see passes sale high, it's always an indicator of bad footwork in the timing of

14:30these offenses, you have to be on it. And for a guy who coming out of high school, that was supposed to be one of Bryce Underwood's biggest strengths with mechanics in the pocket. And I think that being thrust as a first year starter, the speed of the defenses really caught him off guard. You could see that even though, because I think he has a good mechanical base overall, I love his release as well. But you would see like the speed of just the defenses in the big 10, just this the talent, the talent jump from going to high school to big 10 level playing college was a little bit too much for him at times. Like you saw him really struggled to breathe the field, especially in the intermediates levels on the sidelines. Over the middle of the field, you would just see him off a step, holding the ball too long, trying to roll out, make something happen. And it's not entirely his fault, right? We talked about Shiro Mor, his head coach and what an inept job he did, right? He spent more time DMing, OF models during half time, then really coming up with the game plan. I mean, this dude didn't even have a quarterback coach. That's that's just malpractice to do to a first year true freshman starting quarterback and

15:31expect him to have results. So you've seen Bryce Underwood's artificial devy value dip slightly, but not too much. And I think a lot of that is that sunken costs, right? These guys that invested heavily into a mariety, you start hyping yourself up and saying, you know, we got Kyle winning him now and Jason Beckton, and they're going to they're going to transform this dude, which I'm cautiously optimistic there too. But again, we have to be realistic to the fact that what if he doesn't have the biggest jump? What is in your opinion, Chris? Let's let's just say, Bryce Underwood goes out and has a marginally better season. Maybe he uses his legs a little more, but passing wise, you're still seeing some of that inconsistency. What do you think that does to his devy value? Do you think he drops drops completely off the face of the earth? Or like, what are we looking at there? Well, that would terrify me because you know, I love these dual threat guys. I'm always talking about it. And he was decent last year. And almost 500 rushing yards, six touchdowns on the ground. But you need to be able to pass the ball to be a quarterback. So if we don't see significant improvement in his overall ability as a pastor, because we know he can launch that sucker real deep. But we

16:34need to see, like you said, consistency and footwork a little bit more overall improvement. And much like CJ Bailey, he started to peter off as the season went on, which again is understandable for a true freshman in that big 10, especially like Ohio State dominated this kid. That was like a whole different ballgame, whole different league out there. He was playing, playing a little league in Ohio State was playing NFL level talent out there. So it was ugly. And then we need to see some improvement there. I don't expect every game to be good. But you can't have games for your throwing for less than 100 yards. If he turns into a guy, much like the kind of stat lines that we see out of Jalen Hertz at the NFL, where you know, you're running the ball a decent bit, and you're a good manager of the game on the offensive side. That has worked for Jalen Hertz. He's got the talent to be better than that. We've seen games where he takes over like two super balls where he's an absolute amazing pastor. But he's comfortable with only throwing for 150, 180 yards as long as the ball is moving down the field. And he's not turning it over. That's the kind of thing I want to see out of Bryce this year is a little bit more consistency, a little bit more keeping

17:36the game going and just knowing when to make the right decisions, when to run, when to pass short, when to do those kind of things and not just launch the ball down field and let it go where it may go. Yeah. Yeah. I'm right there with you, Chris. Just just see some of the improvements as a processor of the field. And I do think that having a legitimate quarterback coach, a legit head coach who runs real offensive concepts that blend together and compliment each other. I mean, could God man, some of the film review for Michigan last year just it was borderline unwatch boy at times because you see the route concepts that these guys are running. And it's just like, what the hell are they doing out there? Like none of this works. None of this is there was no creativity either to try to scheme stuff open for the guy. So I think that is where I get optimistic because at least let's get this guy move it. Let's get this guy some confidence. Let's get him some easy, skeamed up throws and we know that Kyle Wittingham is going to do that. But like Spencer and I were talking about today via text, I want to see an offense though that asks more of him as the quarterback. And so if we see that man, then it's obviously wills up because the

18:39arm talent on this kid is evident is obviously an athletic freak out there. So he's got all the talent in the world. Just again, man, quarterbacks, the environment matters so much at any level at any level it matters because they can only do so much. They can yes, they can elevate the talent of the team around them. But coaching specifically, it matters so much for these guys. So hoping for the best for the guy. And I think that we are going to see some improvement. Hopefully he can he can do it. But yet it's either going to go up or down. I don't know if I ever directly answer your question, but it can go pretty far down. And I'm still high on price. But if he doesn't do it this year, if he doesn't show a little bit of improvement, he's going to slip down those rankings pretty significantly much like our next guy, CJ Baxter, has fallen significantly. I think you mentioned today, he's basically free now, right? And all of our devi ADPs and things. Unfortunately, he used to be the number one running back in the nation, but oh, how the mighty have fallen, you know, unfortunately, 2024 was an entirely lost season for him with the knee injury. Last year was also basically an entirely lost season when he had a

19:41hamstring injury and it kept him off the field for the most part. So in three seasons, we have not seen a whole lot of him. He's only had a hundred and ninety three rushing attempts. And it's it's just been ugly as a result of him not being able to stay on the field. There's reason to be excited. Obviously, he was the number one overall running back coming out of high school whenever he did out of Orlando there. And he basically picked where he wanted to go. He said, Texas is the place. And he latched on there for three years. And much like I said, didn't really get to play a whole lot, but he still put up 35 missed tackles force in those less than 200 rushing attempts, which isn't too bad. The real question is, did the injuries slow his progression? Or did they literally slow him down? Because that's what we're going to need to see. Is he not the the same player? He's got optimism. He was talking earlier this offseason about being compared to Job from the Bible, you know, the guy who was afflicted with all of these issues that God let happen to kind of treat him, give him an opportunity to become more holy, I guess. So he's got his faith. He's transferred now to Kentucky. He's with Will Stein who I know you're a huge fan of. And I'm excited to hear your thoughts on all this. I expect him to

20:44be the running back one in Will Stein's offense, but they're being very cautious with him this offseason. I expect that to continue into this season. I'm assuming that they're going to have like a near even split with him and Javonte Barnes early in the year until he can kind of prove that he can shoulder the load. They don't want to go too hard too fast, especially as they approach those SEC conference games. So we need to make sure that he can develop slowly. And I think that's the right pattern. But if he can slowly ease into the season and then prove as the SEC gets really taken off on the schedule that he can have some of those big games, it's going to be wheels up for him again. He's going to return some of that value. But it's ultimately is he the same guy that he was before? Is he fast? Is he still, you know, that kind of player who is more dynamic? Or is he doomed to just be maybe he's going to finish his career in Kentucky? And we'll just think fondly of what could have been. So the devy value is completely tanked now. If you are holding him and devy, you have no choice but to just wait and see what happens for him this year. Unfortunately, yeah. And I mean,

21:45like in startups, man, he's literally free. He's not even on our ADP that we've done because a lot of people are just out. I would say of the eight prospects that we're going to talk about tonight, he's probably the one with the on stack against him the most just because I mean, the injury that injury was gruesome. And it's hard to come back. And you know, some of us in the dojo we're talking today about this actually some of the parallels with that injury with him and and one Javante Williams. And you really saw after that injury with Javante Williams that he lost that same burst that he showed us as a rookie, much like C.J. Baxter, you know, I think that he's still got the physical tools and the body and the frame to handle workload, staying and barring that he stays healthy. But he doesn't have that same burst. I think the injuries have just always, they're always going to have taken that away. But the upside to be fantasy relevant is still there. But even with a good season, Chris, and I don't know how we define a good season, I would say like at least let's see a thousand yards of a fully healthy season. You know, I would say that that's like max projecting there. I still don't know what type of NFL draft gap that

22:47this guy would get. I think that he would still be kind of like a day three guy, which is unfortunate because the level talent that he was coming out of high school. Like we thought he was going to be one of them ones, right? Like he was so freaking good. And now I just I struggled to see the NFL upside at like a difference making level for your fantasy rosters. A lot is going to have to go well for him. So fortunately, it's all stacked against him. But like you said, with Will Stein, I do believe in the coaching. I think that he's he's got a system that is it's great for these running backs. Will Stein understands how to run the football. And with that blocking scheme that they employed, like I can squint and see it. I just don't know that Will Stein has the talent to fully accomplish that this season, like coming from Oregon, obviously, you got those hogs on the offensive line. They had a three headed rushing attack. I don't know if year one at this program, trying to turn around that he's got enough to really help CJ Baxter. But again, I was going to be rooting for the kid and like the upside is Javante Williams, right? Like that's the best case scenario. So we're going to see, man, like we mentioned at the top football is almost here. And

23:50these questions are about to be answered. Yeah. And he doesn't necessarily have to come out for the 2027 draft, right? He can stay in school, do another year. If we see some improvement towards the end of the year, he can just stick around or transfer elsewhere if he wants and try to regain some of that value. But I'm with you because, you know, we saw this year, other than the two Notre Dame guys, it was like a wasteland for the running back position in the NFL draft. And even though we've seen a bit of a resurgence in recent years of NFL running backs getting paid pretty well, it's not like it was, you know, 15, 20 years ago, where they're kind of the heart and soul, the offense. And I agree, I think that his absolute best case scenario is maybe like around three. If he can really, really return to where he's at. And even that, I don't expect him to be a guy who's ever going to be a true, you know, workhorse type back in the NFL. I think he's going to be a part of a committee ultimately, which is unfortunate. But he'll still be excited to watch. He's a good story, man. And I'm looking forward to seeing what happens at Kentucky this year and going to his former school, Texas. We both picked guys. We're kind of going head to head here.

24:52We've had a little bit of smack talk back and forth because I'm a huge Hollywood mother's fan. Yeah. Yeah. You like you like smothers and I don't mind smothers. I think I just prefer Ray Leak Brown and Ray Leak Brown is a guy that I've been in on since he was a freshman at USC, right? Coming with Lincoln Riley is actually committed to Riley there at Oklahoma. And of course, when Riley came, it was one of the first dudes that he brought with him. In fact, within like an hour of, of, you know, announcing that he took the USC job, he was at Ray Leak Brown's house. Like he was such a dynamic five star recruit. And then, you know, just a myriad of injuries, this weird hybrid role that Lincoln Riley was trying to play him in, you know, he's returning kicks. He was playing out of the slot as a receiver kind of just like this hybrid guy. I think like this plan was to use him as this ultimate chess piece. And Ray Leak was very open and honest and talking about how like having to learn all these other positions really didn't allow me to focus on what I've always naturally been, which is a running back. And then, you know, chance for Starrasona goes down with another injury, another lost season. And then finally, last year at Arizona State, he got the chance to be

25:57the guy and he stayed healthy for an entire season. And he just absolutely exploded 185 carries over 1100 yards, 6.1 yards per clip, right? A 55 mis-tackles forced and a 100.8 elusive rating. Like analytically, this dude's profile looked pretty good. And of course, he's going to have that solid floor due to the receiving upside. 33 catches, nearly 250 yards and a couple touchdowns on this. I think he's dangerous in the screen game. What I love about his running style Chris is that ultimate change of direction. And the of course, the bursts take into the hole, right? You know, you know, I got a type. And I think a lot of people kind of tight cast him when they look at his measurements, five foot nine, 195 pounds. I think he's perceived as like this small boy out there. And he's far from that man. He's that low cut athlete with the thick lower base, right? Those thick thighs that I like to see in my short running backs. And I actually prefer those five nine running backs. Just, you know, as a former defender, those are the dudes that are tough to hit that can really those savvy short kings that know how to hide behind that offensive line with that combined with

27:00that change of direction and that elite ability to make a defender miss. Like go watch the tape versus Colorado. And some of that was like some poor defenses on Colorado's part admittedly. But also do was just make in place over 235 rushing yards against the Buffalo's which I love to see, you know, as a CSU alum here. But going now projecting forward, I love that he's going to get the opportunity to show out against SEC level defenses. The pause for concern for me comes from the F4 mentioned Hollywood smothers who offers a lot of the same skill set as Ray League Brown. Like it's a really weird room at Texas right now where smothers and Brown kind of offer the same skill set. And then you got the lurking freshman who's really more of the thumper the bruise the bigger type of physical back out there. So it's really just confusing and I think Chris that it's going to be between Ray League Brown and Hollywood smothers to break out and kind of be that that one A with ultimately Cooper coming in to be that power piece. So lay it on me why you think Hollywood

28:00smothers is the guy because again, like I said, they both got a lot to prove they're competing for snaps. So tell me why you think that Hollywood smothers is the back to owning that offense. Yeah, certainly interesting because like you said, they're very similar. They're obviously both transferred in to Texas. So it's going to be interesting to see how it shakes out. Are they going to use them in a pretty strict rotation? Or are they going to be fighting for the same rule? Like you said, so we'll see, but I've always been a fan of Hollywood smothers. He's just got like buttery smooth movements. You know, he's he's fun to watch. Obviously he was CJ Bailey's former teammate at NC State. And I think Texas is in theory. It's great on paper for him to really vault his value up for the NFL draft. However, it probably wasn't great. They also got brown transferred in as well. And I know Bama was lurking and he was almost going to Bama and I think Texas threw some extra money at him. Bama would have been a great place for him to go. Man, it's almost like why couldn't he have been there? The backfield would basically be his this year. There wouldn't be this question of competition. He'd really have a chance to show off what he's got. But now he's stuck in a situation

29:05where one of these two guys is going to have to rise a little bit higher than the others. Unfortunately, for both of them, but it'll still be fun for us as fans to watch. But yeah, he's very similar. Like you said, he had 37 receptions for almost 200 yards last year so he can contribute in the receiving game. Like I said, I just love watching him run because even though he is smooth and he can use his hips to generate a little bit of leverage against those defenders, he also is not afraid to just thump a guy if he needs to. He is a little bit bigger than Ray Leak Brown. I think they're both listed at 195, but he's got two inches on brown. So a little bit bigger. He's not afraid to go after some of those guys when they need to nice breakaway threat. He had a 50. He's got a 54.5 breakaway percent in college so far, which is great. He's great at protecting the ball. He's like a one career fumble as well. He had 49 mistakels forced on only 160 carries last year. It's just all a matter of what's going to happen. How's this going to shake out? So for me, it's just a matter of I've been a fan of this guy. I've talked about him before on the show. I've written him up on our sub stack. I'm excited for him. And like I said, on paper, Texas feels like a good spot for him, but the

30:08competition around him is going to mean that he really needs to step up and show it. So one of these two guys is sure to not return value based on the competition that they're facing. This is not going to be a situation like at Michigan last year where we saw Marshall and Haynes both run for a bajillion yards and get the ball in a pretty even split. It's going to be one where they're kind of one of these guys is cycling from the other. So we will see, but it should be a good running game of Texas at the very least. It should be, man. And Sarcasing isn't making it any clear. Like I think it was just it was either yesterday or today he was talking about the backfield. And like, you know, he's been heaping a lot of praise on Ray Leak Brown. He's kind of like, Hollywood's mother's been doing good, but this guy Ray Leak, you know, and I think that Hollywood now has put, he's had some momentum now in camp, but I just ultimately it comes down to me in my evaluation of I just think that Ray Leak is the more natural runner. And I think he's the more dynamic weapon. I think he's also the better inside runner. Like I think a lot of people again, kind of typecast him. And they think they just kind of assume that Ray Leak Brown isn't very good

31:11running in between the tackles, but he actually of his 180 five carries 113 of those came inside. And he rushes for 723 yards rushing inside that's 6.4. 6.4 yards per carry just running in inside. Well, I butchered that, but yeah, just be just from running inside. He ran for 6.4 yards per carry. So a lot of a lot of stat digging in there, but it matches what I saw on field. I have to regret. I do think he's a little bit better of the inside runner and Hollywood's a little bit better on the outside. But you know, we'll see how it shakes up. Staying in the state of Texas, Mario Craver, who's another guy who I've been pretty high on for a while, but this was a guy that you wanted to talk about. I have been a vocal supporter of him for quite a while. Mostly thanks to his metrics is 3.25 yards per out run with 7th and college last year. His he wasn't in a ton of contested contest contested catch situations, but he was 50% on six contested targets, which is obviously a tiny sample size, but at least he's he's not lower, you know, because he is

32:12that small guy. The biggest worry obviously is the size. And I think when you project that into the NFL, that does mean that even though I like his talent, I think he's going to be a useful receiver in the NFL, he's probably never going to get a ton of touchdowns. No matter what offense he lands in, even if he's used in a high slot rule, he's probably not going to be that red zone target. There's going to be tight ends, siphon in front of him. There's going to be those taller receivers on the outside that are siphon in front of him. There's going to be running backs that are siphon in front of him. So ultimately his overall ceiling for me is capped to an extent, but that really hasn't stopped me from drafting the heck out of him in the third and fourth rounds of debut ADP mocks and startups and things because I'm a believer. Yeah, I think I've come around to him. Chris, obviously you and I have gone back and forth on Mario Craber, I've said I've been on record in the past is saying, like, I think he's a really good college wide receiver. I do think he's a dog. My biggest question was always the size and a guy at 165 pounds, how the hell can you make it against NFL level defenders that are bigger and faster than you and stronger? I just, I struggled

33:13to see the fit, but confirmed reports now at a campus that he put on 15 pounds of functional mass. So it's now sitting at 180, which we've, I personally, I've seen enough wide receivers have some success in the NFL, at least to be fantasy relevant. So that made me a lot more hopeful and that's when I started buying some shares. I was like, all right, you know what the dude's putting in work. It is a draft eligible season for him. So let's see if he can get to work. I think having the room more so to himself, like Casey Concepcion really was the primary in that and he was the complimentary, complimentary piece for Marcel Reed, kind of that easy button target, lower eight out stuff, like get the ball in his hands and let him go make some magic. So this year with being more of the primary guy, I think he's obviously still going to work out at the slot. Is he Horton over there on the outside to kind of take some of that deeper outside boundary X type of stuff and let him feast there. So I see the path for him to be very productive again. Of course, he had over 900 yards receiving last year for touchdowns. You mentioned the yards per route run at 3.25, but he had 575 yards after the catch. And I think that that's just his bread

34:15and butter. We have, we always talk about that game versus Notre Dame where he just, you know, short little pass and he was able to take it to the house bounce golf defender, making the other one miss truly incredible the level of talent and the in the shiftyness that he has. Look, the dude is just so elusive. He's incredible with the ball in his hands, but now it's going to be, how can you be when you're really being relied on as the guy on a team that has pretty high level playoff aspirations. More of the attention is going to be on him, I think. And what I would love to see Chris, what I need to see him prove on the field is more intermediate and deeper level of the field work against these corners. I want to see some deep shots with Mario Crabber. I want to see some of that stuff. I want to see him do more real wide receivership more like less of the gadgeties stuff, less of the low eight out stuff. Let's see you run with your route running. Let's see you winning some contested catch situations. I just want to see more for him because I do think the upside is there. Of course, Benny from the dojo, Benny knows ball. He's very high on Mario Crabber with you. And one of his hot takes is that not even a hot take. I think it's just his take is that

35:20he is going to push himself into a first round draft pick. And we saw a guy like Zay flowers recently be a first round pick. You know, we've seen the vantus myth, but I think that though like you saw the consistency there, there and and there. So I just need to see another big year out of Mario Crabber from it. But one thing I did like in in researching for this episode is you know, I didn't realize that his his first his freshman year there at Mississippi State. He actually lined up like 80 out wide. And then it was completely flipped once he went to Texas A&M. Like so he has some experience working outside. Obviously, it wasn't nearly as productive, but he does have that experience. So I would I would like to see him moved around a little bit more. But go ahead and talk about Mario Crabber Chris because I know that you love him. Like what does he have to do in order to silence all the doubters, the people like me that said he's too small. What does he have to do to be that first round pick? Exactly what you just said. He needs to be more useful down deep. And he really needs to step up now without Casey conception. He needs to be that number one wide receiver in an SEC type scenario. You know, he's got a show that he can be that go to target, which is

36:24something that I'm always looking for. Because if you can't do that at the college level, you're not even going to really have a functional rule in an NFL offense, right? And science doesn't always scare me because like you said, there's guys that have been successful recently. And all the guys who make it to the NFL, they all played in college at one point, right? All those defenders that were afraid of they all played in college and a lot of them played in the SEC. So the same guys that he's lining up against this year, not all of them, but a lot of them are out there and they can thump them just as hard and college as they can at the NFL. So the size stuff doesn't really scare me as much as it scares some people. But ultimately we just need to see him be more versatile. I didn't know that about his splits at Mississippi State. So that is very interesting. So he's shown he can do it. And I think that they're going to have an opportunity this year to use him a little bit more without conception being there. But we'll definitely see what the future holds for him. But obviously I'm high on him. I've got a ton of shares. So I really hope he hits. I think that it might be a little spicy as a first round wide receiver. I'm hoping like day two is maybe like the ceiling that I was projecting. But shout out to Benny. Benny knows ball. So if Benny knows ball,

37:24then he's he's talking about it. And last but not least, speaking of a guy who could use a little bit more versatility. Ryan now Coleman Williams, formerly Ryan Williams. I spoke a lot about him last year during my incessant relentless hype up of now stealer Jeremy Bernard and Ryan simply got outshine last year on the Alabama offense. We thought that after his freshman year, he was going to have that huge step into year two. And really he just went back out of all levels essentially. He wasn't even the number one on his own team. Jeremy stole that from him down the stretch, Tyson some was looking for Jeremy and all of those clutch situations. It seemed like Ryan Williams was more of an afterthought. So this year is going to be huge for him to regain some of that value with his new name to show that he can be that quarterback's friend, that guy who could be the number one true number one guy on a team. He's there in all situations. He's the guy that he's looking for at any given time and in those clutch plays and when plays are breaking down, it was just ugly last year. I mean, say what you want about pro football focus grades, but he was

38:28tied for 249th, which obviously isn't great in receiving grade last year. And then I talked a lot in the off season about not loving him because of his drops his freshman year of what he had seven. They actually went up in 2025 with fewer targets. He had 10 drops last year. So some's going on in his head. He needs to focus and get that ball in. That's the most important thing. I think about was that Friday night lights were Tim McGraw just tapes the ball. He's like, hold on the ball. That's what he needs to do, man. Look at the ball and think about what happens after you catch it, after you catch it. Don't worry about any of that stuff. So that's going to be a big thing for me. I know we've talked in the past about maybe drops don't really mean that much fantasy wise for for value for these guys. It doesn't really affect a lot of plays, but it does affect when the quarterback's going to throw to you. Because if you're dropping the ball, they're going to go to Jeremy Bernardin said they're going to go to other guys instead. So we need to see a little bit more consistency in his hands. Overall, we just need to see some consistency out of him. I would like to see more versatility because he did bump up. He was used over half the time in the slot last year.

39:29So I'd like to see him a little bit more outside to prove that he can line up all over the field, which he did obviously is freshman year. But after having that step back a little bit last year, I need to see some more usage of him all around the field. He should have a decent rapport with Keelon just from some offseason this year and some practices last year. I'm hoping that Keelon can step up and use him as his number one guy as we all expected him to be entering into 2025. The reports are though that he's having an absolutely great offseason, which is good because truly when I say this, it might be the pressure on him is bigger than any other NFL draft prospect, at least on the offensive side of the ball. The pressure is extremely high for Ryan Coleman Williams right now. He has the talent to come in and do it. He's an absolutely dynamic threat with the ball. A yak machine, whenever he's the ball is in his hands, he's a threat. He just needs to keep the ball in his hands and he needs to prove that he's worthy of having the ball in his hands. Yeah, absolutely. You hit a lot of my notes on him. I mean, Ryan Coleman Williams is a guy that we've talked a lot about this show. Sense our show's inception really. He was one of the first big

40:33time guys. I mean, for this time last year, Chris, he was a black belt for us. Why do you see Vertoo and Devy and how the mighty have fallen? But again, his Devy value, that artificial value, hasn't really dipped too far. And again, that's again, going back to the security of drafting wide receivers and Devy that value kind of maintains. But if he has another down year and he foregoes the draft and has to go to college and return to college and transfer to another team, then it's like then then we almost have to be out. So this is a big year, right? We talk about prove it. Ryan Coleman Williams, you're the big dog now. This is your third year on the team, third year with Kaylyn DeBoard. Like you have no more excuses. And I really just by all accounts, by all indicators that he's given, he's really taking that to heart, not just the leadership, but total transformation of who he is because like he went back to his high school number, right? He's no longer number two. He's number one now. I love when wide receivers wear number one to me. To me, wide receivers got to be a little bit of a not just the dog, but like that. Like I'm the best.

41:35They got to have that swagger out there, that confidence. And so I like to see that number just from that, but the play that he's had out there on the practice fields from the little clips that we've got of Kewan in this in this quarterback competition, Kewan Russell throwing him the ball. Like if Ryan Williams can just do what he did as a freshman, which is that pair of wet ability, the ability to high point and just make magic happen these electric plays, then he's going to be all right, because his problem has never been separation is problem has never been getting open. His problem really has just been against some press corners really throws off the timing and then of course the drops, the drops been killer, man. You talk about it like not really being that impactful for fantasy guys, but I would argue I agree with that, but I would argue when it becomes like a fundamental issue with your hands like your placement, you're not really in the ball in, that to me is concerning. But by all accounts, he's really, really taking that to heart and really worked on that. He's bulked up to like he got engaged. He's got he's got a baby to support now. He's grown up. He's not that little 17 year old kid, you know, spinning away from Georgia defenders

42:39making these crazy plays in a overtime thriller. He's not that young kid anymore. He's the veteran now. He's the vocal leader and I'm hoping my hope for him is that he goes out and he puts it all together. And I think having a quarterback like Kewan Russell, who is fundamentally sound, he's already in my highs like elite mechanically with that rushing ability and in the rapport. If he can hit him in timing and rhythm in the concepts that Katelyn the board wants to run, I don't see how he doesn't spike in value again if he has that year. But again, Chris, the end verse is also true. Do you have any concerns that we don't see that that jump from Ryan Williams? Absolutely. And I was never quite as high. I think I had him as a purple belt last year when we were entering never quite as high as you were on him. I get how, you know, he was young, you know, he was only 17, his freshman year. But the drops manage just like, that's a thing for me. I want reliable guys out there and quarterbacks won't reliable guys as well. So naturally seeing him step back last year, some of that isn't his fault. It's just because Jeremy Bernard was truly good.

43:39Like he was a great player last year. I've been very high on him. He ended up being a second round draft pick and it well deservedly. So I get it whenever you have another guy like that who's on the field. He's dominating. Of course, the quarterback's going to be looking for him. But like you said, this is him now. He's a leader. He's got to step up. He's the guy who's been there for a long time. He's been with Kaelin the whole time. It's time, man. Because if we are talking about him transferring to another school, like you mentioned, that's bad. That's just bad, bad, bad news. We want him to finish his career. Bama, we want him to have a huge year this year and declare for the draft. He would be one of the youngest receivers in the NFL. That would be fantastic. That's the best case scenario. The worst case scenario is the wheels fall off again. And he's stuck on all these devi rosters. And you're using him as like a throw in to try to juice up a trade and just praying that you could get something back and return for him. So I hope it doesn't come to that. Yeah. Yeah. I hope it doesn't come to that. I'm holding a lot of bags from the kid. But you know, I bought it and I'm still a big believer in true freshman breakouts. I think the number, the data supports that

44:40it's still one of the biggest indicators for future NFL success. So I'm still really high on the kid. It's just like, man, you listen to the to the NFL draft community and they're consistently still mentioning him as like a like top two, three wide receiver in the 2027 class. And I don't know if I could comfortably say that right now. I would say definitely has the upside to be that. But with what we've actually seen on the field, I don't know, man, because because again, even the freshman season, he showed, he showed these same red flags. It was just, you know, he had the highlight plays to supplement. And we didn't quite see that this year. So this again, when we talk about needing to prove it, Brian William, Brian Coleman Williams, excuse me embodies that more than any other player that we've had on this list for sure, without a doubt. And I have zero shares of him on blue ship. And just as a reminder, blue ship, it's our favorite app to do devi to do C2C to do college football fantastic app. We've been hammering it all off season doing mocks, all sorts of fun stuff. I'm wrapping up my last couple C2C and CFF drafts right now, right in time for

45:43the season to start. So those are going to be done here in the next couple days. And I've had a ton of fun drafts in all off season on blue chip. So shout out to Will Stone, shout out to Blue Chip, go download it now on iOS and intro. Yeah, good plug there. And we, you know, we were supposed to have Will Stone on as a guest. Unfortunately, you know, things on the ice and sand. Fortunately, man, the birth of his child, man. So shout out to Will Stone, the developer and creator of Blue Chip. We absolutely love him and what he's going on. Planets to get him on that recording for week one. And we'll talk some ball with him for sure. But if you haven't already, make sure that you're subscribed to the YouTube. And you know what, if you enjoy the content, if you enjoy all the insights that we and the rest of the devi dojo team are providing, then you need to hit our substack and become a paid member. Look, we're always putting out quality content like the articles are coming. We're always putting out fire content on YouTube, of course. But we're supplementing it with a lot of tools now, right? And our rankings and some other stuff that really are going to help you get that edge over your league mates and just consistently know who these guys are, right? We're doing

46:44prospect watch on for the high schoolers. Like, we got a team of seven guys who are just dedicated ball lowers at this now. And it's truly been tremendous. Like this integration and this merger that we've had with the planet boys has just been awesome. Right? We're all under the dojo now. It's been truly incredible to just do this stuff with friends. So again, I implore you, if you enjoy this content, then you need to be at least be subscribed because you know what, I'm a guy that's always looking at the YouTube analytics and I see a lot of you are watching, but you're not subscribed. So you might as well just hit that subscribe button right now. Make sure that you're always locked in. But that, Chris, unless you had any other thoughts, that's going to do it for tonight. No? Okay. So another banger. Yep. Another banger, man. These guys, look, football season is rapidly approaching and all these questions that we have for these guys are soon to be answered. But until the next time at the dojo, remember to trust your training.